Brr…
I just thought you’d like to know that Canada Post warns people of service disruptions via their official site: Click here for this information.
Stay Warm.
It’s Boxing Day Time
Boxing Day deals have already begun at Canadian retailers like 123ink.ca, Amazon Canada, Best Buy Canada, Canada Computers, chapters.indigo.ca, Living.ca, Microsoft Canada
, Newegg Canada
, Prime Cables Canada, Sonos Canada, Staples Canada and thesource.ca. But you’ll need to wait until Boxing Day itself for deep discounts at Amazon U.k and Sheet Music Plus if you were planning on importing music, sheet music, DVDs and Blu-rays from “across the pond”, although you could still browse those shops to see if they have discounts on certain products today.
Year-end deals can also be found in the United States at Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble, the later primarily in their CD & Vinyl and Movies & TV departments. And if you’re looking for collectibles, like figurines and other memorabilia, Entertainment Earth is having an After Christmas Sale.
Happy shopping.
It’s Black Friday
The day has come and I thought I’d discuss my go-to places for certain goods in this entry, beyond the miscellaneous, general goods sites like Amazon.ca, Bestbuy.ca and Newegg Canada.
There’s always an opportunity to do some comparison shopping when it comes to certain goods today and through the weekend into Cyber Monday, so I tend to visit multiple stores to find the best deals, including some American and European retailers, although you need to account for the exchange rates and possible shipping and customs fees for the later if it’s valued at over $20 Canadian.
I’ve personally saved on Vinyl Records, Blu-rays, DVDs, compact discs, sheet music and books ordered from American retailers Amazon.com, Alibris, ArkivMusic
, Barnes & Noble
and Sheet Music Plus and European retailers Amazon U.k, Amazon France and Alibris U.k.
so you might want to shop around; Sheet Music Plus is currently offering 15% off orders over US$50 and 20% off orders over $100 whilst Barnes & Noble is offering 10% Off Your Online Order until December 1st with the BLKFRI coupon code.
If you’re looking for musical instruments and accessories you might want to browse the Long & Mcquade site or pop on by one of their local Canadian stores. And you can also do some comparison shopping on American sites like GuitarCenter.com, Musician’s Friend and Woodwind and Brasswind
, who also ship to Canada.
All three of these American retailers are offering discounts; Guitar Center is offering a 15% discount on orders over US$199 today using code FRIDAY15 and on Cyber Monday using discount code CYBER15. Musician’s Friend is offering 10% off orders US$49+ and 15% off orders US$99+ with coupon code BLACKFRI19 until November 20th. And Woodwind and Brasswind is offering a 20% discount on purchases over US$99 with coupon code BF2019.
If you’re looking for miscellaneous cables, television mounts, adapters and audio accessories, you might want to browse primecables.ca for both deals on these products and a 20% discount using coupon code BF2019, which will be valid until 11:59 pm tonight (11/29) on this site and the other Shoppers+ sites (123ink.ca and living.ca). And Sonos Canada is currently discounting their home theatre speakers by 20% so you might want to check them out.
In regards to memorabilia, you could drop by at your local Indigo store for some in-store discounts on Lego, DC and Marvel merchandise and possibly visit them online for discounts on some toys. But U.S based EntertainmentEarth.com
is having major discounts this weekend and Diecast Model Warehouse is offering a 10% discount on their models with coupon code CYBERMONDAY. And deals can also be had at Toys-R-Us Canada (from 15% to 60% off) and samkoandmikotoywarehouse.com (25% with coupon code: thebigsave25).
You might also consider visiting your local record stores, some of which will also open early today to offer rare, exclusive and discounted compacts discs, vinyl records, DVDs, Blu-rays and music memorabilia in celebration of the Black Friday edition of Record Store Day.
Details on what is being made available and what stores are participating can be found on the official Record Store Day Canada web site, by clicking here.
Hope this information helps you find some good deals today. And if I think of anything else today, I’ll update this entry.
Enjoy.
Black Friday Week Specials
Black Friday Week specials have begun at 123ink.ca, Amazon.ca, Bestbuy.ca, Canada Computers, Living.ca, Newegg Canada and thesource.ca. And you can find previews for Black Friday Sales at Microsoft Canada
and access an exclusive pre-sale for Plum members at Indigo.ca
.
American retailers Amazon.com, EntertainmentEarth.com, Sheet Music Plus and Woodwind and Brasswind
are also having early Black Friday specials this year.
Disney+ – My First Impression
As I have previously stated on this blog, Disney+ features 500 films and over 7500 television programs from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm, 20th Century Fox, National Geographic and other companies Disney distributes, many of which will be made available on the service in the future.
The initial releases are quite satisfactory and include several of the Disney films I had seen in my elementary school theatre in the ’80s, like The Cat From Outer Space, Unidentified Flying Oddball and The Apple Dumpling Gang and Herbie The Love Bug films. But the classic Donald Duck and Goofy cartoons I had wanted to see were not online yet. And the $6.99 monthly subscription fee mentioned online was incorrect.
The monthly fee in Canada is actually $8.99, with an option to prepay for a year at $89.99, which reduces the monthly fee down to $7.50. And although I think the later is great for families, I’m personally going to wait for more content to be added before committing to this service.
Parents that like to keep their kids entertained whilst travelling will love the streaming or download and go options. And the service is also great for parents that have young kids, that can’t handle and load films into their DVD and Blu-ray players. But I already own quite a few of the films featured on this service on DVD, Blu-ray and digital so there is no real incentive for me to subscribe yet.
The Mandalorian’s first season is comprised of eight episodes, that I can easily binge watch prior to the release of the second season, which is already being filmed. And I could always purchase the latest Spider-Man film during the upcoming Black Friday and Cyber Monday events, pretty much completing my Marvel Cinematic Universe collection (minus a few mediocre films in the series).
In regards to The Simpsons, I can also view the first 19 seasons in the original 4 by 3 aspect ratio on Apple TV/iTunes, Google Play and in reruns on television, so I am not missing much there either.
The addition of the aforementioned Donald Duck and Goofy cartoons to Disney+ will probably lure me back, as will the expansion of the 20th Century Fox Pictures, Fox Broadcasting Company and Touchtone Pictures catalogues to the service. But I suspect this will not happen until next summer, hopefully after they correct their playback and security issues.
Apparently some users had encountered technical issues and several thousand accounts have been hacked resulting in their details being posted online. But it was smooth sailing on my end via my Roku Premiere+, other than an issue with the playback language.
For some reason, it decided to play Star Wars – Episode IV in French, when all the other films played back in English. And although I managed to change the audio to English, I couldn’t figure out how to change the opening crawl.
I’m sure this minor glitch will be repaired by the time I decide to go back. And overall I’d say the Canadian version is an acceptable service for most.
★★★★☆
The Oshawa CD/Record Show
Will you be in the Greater Toronto Area this Sunday?
If so, then perhaps you’d like to visit the Oshawa CD/Records Show, which will be held at 33 Lviv Blvd from 10 am to 4 pm. Admission will be $3.
Enjoy.